Teacher's Guide to the journaling project

TEACHER’S GUIDE

JOURNAL WRITING FOR STUDENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION

“You never know what you will learn till you start writing. Then you discover truths you never knew existed.”

Anita Bayer

A journal is a continued series of writings made by a person in response to their life experiences and events. Diaries contain a description or a record of daily events. A journal may include those descriptions, but it also contains reflections on what took place and expresses emotions and understandings about them. A journal helps you to keep in touch with your inner self and helps you to grow as a person.

1.1 Journal Writing – a flexible tool for teaching writing

Journal writing is not a new concept. It has been used by teachers all over the world to teach and improve writing. One of the best benefits of using a journal is that it is very flexible. Teachers can use journal writing to meet specific goals such as checking on students’ work and polishing their writing skills. We can also provide journal prompts to help weak students to begin their writing. Students of high proficiency can be left on their own to go in any direction. Students can also keep a journal on anything they like such as a journal of famous quotes and their response, a journal of ideas and thoughts.

1.2 More Benefits

i. Less pressure on students

Teachers find that journal writing takes the pressure off students. It gives students who have great difficulty with written language an opportunity when spelling, punctuation, and grammar don't count. This let them express themselves in writing without the pressure they typically have when doing assignments. It ensures they have one positive writing experience each day."

ii. Improves writing skills

Some teachers discovered that students write more fluently with less ‘think’ time as the journaling progresses. When they write on a regular basis, their writing tends to flow and they improve.

iii. Provides a safe structure for weak writers

Students may begin with lots of illustrations and minimal writing as in my Remedial Module but as they progresses, illustrations are replaced by words and eventually, they would be able to write a page.

iv. Journals help develop relationship with students

Journals help teachers to understand students better and begin to develop a relationship with them. As these journals are strictly between teacher and student, students feel free to write about their problems and situations they face. This helps teachers to understand what is going on in that student’s life. Students will reveal many things as long as they know the teacher can be trusted.